2004 Fall.Vol25.#3.pdf - Coptic Church Review

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ART AND COPTIC ICONS: TWELVE YEARS LATER 67 recovery of wholeness. Over centuries of development, iconographers gradually developed a way of communicating physical reality illuminated by the hidden spiritual life.” 4 A slightly more contentious text is The Resurrection and the Icon by Michel Quenot, suggesting that the icon is losing its uniqueness because of a proliferation of modernist images, a dependence upon commercially produced religious imagery, and a general sense that the modern world has become increasingly reliant upon false images. 5 Quenot affirms the essential alienation of Orthodoxy from modern thought. Whilst sensing the psychological poverty of much art, he suggests that the icon speaks to the depths of personal being: through Orthodox tradition, icons remain central elements in Christian practice with the surviving intention of fostering faith. The Educating Icon by Anton C. Vrame is another careful investigation of the power of Orthodox visual culture upon the lives of individuals, as much as upon the life and tradition of the Church. Vrame speaks not only of the importance of icons in the educative processes of Orthodoxy but more affectingly of the fact that it is he who has been taught by the icons. In his last chapter, entitled The Sacrament of Education, the author places Orthodox Christian imagery at the centre of his thesis: “When we feel that our educational efforts are frustrating or frustrated, we can look to the icon as a visual standard bearer. Recall that the concept of theosis (deification) was not a logical doctrine, but a vision of life. The icon bears witness to the ideal that education should strive to attain…. the icon provides hope in the possibility of the vision.” 6 Each of these Eastern Orthodox texts deserves attention. The Coptic Orthodox and other Middle Eastern churches are similarly blessed with publications comparable to those of Forest, Quenot and Vrame. Ashraf and Bernadette Sadek, the editors of Le Monde Copte have done more than anyone to enlarge our understanding of Coptic iconography in their L’Incarnation de la Lumière: le renouveau iconographique copte à travers l’oeuvre d’Isaac Fanous. 7 This important work not only affirms the centrality of Isaac Fanous in Coptic culture but also outlines the history and practice of Coptic art as he has affirmed it. 8 The Incarnation of Light verifies the mystical, ascetic and communal traditions of the Copts and is the most important work of Coptic culture to have been published in the last half century. 9 4 Praying with Icons, Jim Forest, Orbis Books NY, 1997. 5 The Resurrection and the Icon, Michel Quenot, SVS Press, NY, 1997. 6 The Educating Icon. Teaching Wisdom and Holiness in the Orthodox Way. Anton C. Vrame, Holy Cross, Boston Mass. USA, 1999. 7 L’Incarnation de la Lumière: le renouveau iconographique copte à travers l’oeuvre d’Isaac Fanous. Ashraf et Bernadette Sadek. Le Monde Copte, Limoges. 8 Coptic Church Review Vol.22 No.3. Fall 2001. pp. 94-5). 9 The Light of Christ, John Watson, Watani 10, June 2001. Review: p.11 Art and Christian Enquiry Bulletin, John Watson, London, July 2001.
68 Fall 2004 • Coptic Church Review - Volume 25, Number 3 L’Art Copte en Égypte: 2000 ans de christianisme 10 is the catalogue of the exhibitions opened in Paris from 15 May to 3 September 2000 and at Cap d’Agde in Southern France from 30 September 2000 to 7 January 2001. It contains a brief but important essay Témoignage d’un Peintre Égyptien à Propos des Icônes by Isaac Fanous, where he offers his testimony concerning the relationship between the images and the Egyptian character: we may assume that he means the Egyptian Christian character. 11 The entire catalogue emphasises the perception that Coptic Orthodox Christianity was cradled in the culture of pharaonic Egypt, that Egypt became a major colony of the Roman Empire before the time of Christ and that there was a Greek inheritance in the intervening period, emphasising a debt to three cultures. Other noteworthy material about Coptic Art can be usually read at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. 12 A further significant text concerning Christian iconography in the Middle East is IcÙnes Arabes, art chrÈtien du Levant 13 . Contributors to this volume include Samir Khalil SJ, who is well known as a visiting lecturer at the Coptic Institute in Abassiya, and Olivier ClÈment, the distinguished Orthodox author and professor of Eastern Orthodox spirituality in Paris. This is a catalogue of permanent value for all students of Middle Eastern Christian art, and there are other eminent contributors. The text has been available in Arabic, German, French and English. One beautiful French word appears here. That word is analphabËte and is better than its English-language equivalent. When the catalogue refers to les analphabËtes, it is translated as ’the illiterates’. But analphabËte is fashioned from Greek words and a gentler ’without an alphabet’ sounds better than ‘illiterate‘. The point is that the holy icons, in the world of Late Antiquity and throughout the later Eastern Christian world, were designed to inform the eyewitness. The holy images were theologically eloquent. Icons were everywhere. Books were rare. Frederick Barnard’s famous observation that ‘one picture is worth ten thousand words’ 14 confirms what many of us have learnt through the holy icons. It 10 L’Art Copte en Égypte: 200 ans de christianisme Editions Gallimard, Paris. 2000. 11 Ibid pp. 239-41. 12 See e.g. Les Coptes; Vingt Siècles de Civilisation Chrétienne en Égypte (Dossiers d’Archeologie No. 226 – September 1997). This collection includes articles on Coptic Architecture by Miriam Wissa, Coptic Sculpture by D. Benazeth and an excellent contribution on Coptic Monastic iconography by Paul Van Moorsel. Dossiers d’Archeologie No.233, May 1988 contains an important piece on The Copts in Fatimid Egypt, using illustrations of the enormous fresco of the Annunciation uncovered in 1991 at Deir es-Souriani by Professor Helmut Buchhausen of the University of Vienna. The English language publication Egyptian Art at the Louvre (1998. 55084 ISSN 1242-9198, Société Française de Promotion Artistique) contains a beautifully illustrated essay on Coptic Art by Dominique Bénazeth and Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya. The IMA also produces its own quarterly journal Qantara: Magazine des Culture Arabe et Méditerranéenne. Many issues refer to the Middle Eastern churches: No. 21 Autumn 1996 contains an important feature by Christian Cannuyer on ‘ Christian Arabs’, including a feature on the Copts. No.35, Spring 2000 is devoted to Les Coptes. In the future it is likely that the Institut du Monde Arabe will prove to be an interfaith meeting place. It has already proved to be a major exhibitor of Arab Christian art and iconography. 13 IcÙnes Arabes, art ChrÈtien du Levant (Arab Icons, the Christian Art of the Levant). ISBN 2- 914338-05-8), …ditions GrÈgoriennes. 14 Printers’Ink March 1927.
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